An Eventful Week

Last Sunday (March 24), Pastor Lau Chin Kwee passed away.  He attended the Protestant Reformed Seminary years ago, and was the pastor at First Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore until the split in 2006, when he and his family came to Covenant ERC.  However, he was never an active pastor at CERC, because by that time he had serious health problems.  In 2009 he had Asia's first heart and liver transplant.  For the past three months or so he had been in the hospital, and the Lord finally took him home last Sunday.

I hope to write a blog about funeral customs here in general another time, but for now I will just say that it involves a few days of wakes before the funeral.  On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights there were services, with some singing and a 30-40 minute speech, followed by fellowship with the many people who attended the services.  My husband led the services Monday and Tuesday nights, and Rev. denHartog flew in for the Wednesday service and the funeral.  Rev. denHartog said that he had ordained Pastor Lau, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two oldest children, and had the confession of faith of at least one of those children.  So it was a blessing for him and for the Laus that he was able to be here now.  The funeral was held Thursday.

The following day was Good Friday.  In Singapore each major religion is allowed to have two holidays.  One of the Christian holidays is Good Friday, so everyone has off work that day. Because of this, CERC holds a "Good Friday Gospel Meeting" in the morning, and people are encouraged to invite unbelieving friends and family members to hear about the cross of Christ.  The meeting this past Friday included singing a few Psalter numbers and a speech about "Christ's Life-Giving Death" based on Romans 5:10. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."  We also had a time of fellowship over lunch, and many of the visitors stayed for that.  We hope and pray the Lord will use this as a means to work in their hearts.

On the way to church Friday morning we saw a long line of cars near a crematorium.  We were told this is a time of year when people go to clean the urns of their ancestors.  On the way home we saw cars lined up by a mosque for Muslim prayer services, which take place every Friday.  The guy who gives haircuts to my husband and sons is one of the leaders of these Muslim prayer services.  There's always something going on here in regards to other religions!

Now we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and are thankful, especially after standing at the graveside this week, that Christ rose from the dead so that we also might live.  "I am the resurrection, and the life:  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26).

Sightseeing in Singapore

With friends here the last couple months, we got to do some extra sightseeing.  I thought I'd share some of the sights of Singapore with you.  We'll start with the food and move on to the scenery.

A dessert called "cendol"--It contains coconut milk, "jelly"
with green food coloring (different from the jelly we put on bread!),
red beans, shaved ice, and maybe a few other things.

Cendol after it's all mixed together--You can see the green "jelly" in this picture.

Seafood in the Chinatown wet market

Seafood in the wet market by our flat

Inside those leaves are rice cakes.  On the sticks are "satay," pork or beef or chicken seasoned deliciously. You usually dip them in the cups of peanut sauce, but I like them plain--my favorite food here!

Otah, a spicy "fish paste" wrapped in banana leaf

One of the views from the Flyer (world's tallest ferris wheel)

Looking out into the bay

Marina Bay Sands, a hotel and casino

View from a river cruise

The Flyer at night

The symbol of Singapore, the Merlion

View from the cable cars which run from Mt. Faber in Singapore to Sentosa Island

Another view from the cable cars

On Mt. Faber with Jeff Kotman and Yoon Chuan & Jee Fung, a couple from church

Flowers and oranges on Sentosa

Beautiful flowers at the Singapore Zoo

More flowers at the zoo

A palm leaf at the zoo

Church visitors

I feel like it's been a while since I've posted here.  I think that as life "settles down" there won't be as much to write about as there was when everything was new.  But I will try to keep up on it as often as I can without being boring. :-)

For the past ten days or so, Rev. Koole and Elder Tom Bodbyl from Grandville PRC have been in Singapore.  Their main purpose here was church visitation.  In the PRC each council receives a church visit every year from two ministers appointed by Synod.  CERC has never had that, being alone here.  So as part of our sister church relationship, they requested the PRC to send church visitors here.  Because Grandville is the calling church for the minister-on-loan to Singapore, this year the church visitors came from Grandville.  Because our family's membership papers are in Grandville, they also conducted family visiting with us. We had such a nice visit and received so much encouragement from them.  Rev. Koole also preached the afternoon services both Sundays they were here, including one Applicatory service, after they were able to join us for the Lord's Supper the first Sunday.

I only have a few pictures of their visit here, from a day when we joined them and some of the youth for an outing to the oceanarium on Sentosa.

Talking with some of the youth

 Cornelius, Marcus, Mr. Bodbyl, Tian Loong, Rev. Koole

 Cheryl, Rev. Koole, Joanna, Mr. Bodbyl, Jason, Noelene, Samantha, Jessica, Megan, me

Playing a touch-screen game in the oceanarium building

Mr. Bodbyl with his adopted grandchild :-)

We thank Rev. Koole and Elder Bodbyl for coming, and the PRC for sending them.  Their visit was a big encouragement to us, and we pray God will use it to continue to strengthen the ties between the PRC and CERC.